Car Review: 2009 Honda Civic Si

Sporty coupe can still party

Originally published: July 31, 2009

SMALL

MEDIUM

LARGE

While my wife packed her bags and hit the road with several co-workers for a girl’s weekend spa getaway, I was stepping out with Betty C. Betty may have been a little past her prime, but she’s a sporty sort and was more than willing to show me a good time. The wife may have come back home rubbed down and with her toenails painted, but I was a new man, feeling younger and hungry for more.

No, this is not cheap tabloid fodder. Betty C. was the name I gave to my tester, a stylish Honda Civic Si coupe painted in a particularly attractive shade of orange. The Betty part came from the car’s licence plate letter designation BETY. The C is from the Spanish pronunciation of Si.

No longer the newest or fastest sport compact on the market, the Civic Si is still proof one doesn’t have to spend a ton of cash to have a great driving experience. For $26,880, one gets a car with a profile that continues to turn heads, plus performance that is genuine yet realistic — four-cylinder economy at a time when fuel prices and environmental considerations have made large-displacement engines less desirable.

Honda still thinks of the Civic Si as the hot rod of its lineup and, with the announced denouement of its evergreen and underappreciated S2000 roadster, that is probably not corporate hyperbole. Certainly, 197 horsepower and an 8,000-rpm redline from a normally aspirated, 2.0-litre i-VTEC four-cylinder is nothing to sneeze at. Add a six-speed, close-ratio manual transmission and a helical-type, limited-slip differential for improved traction and the recipe for good times is there to enjoy.

And Betty C. was happy to perform. Even though the four-banger makes its power in the upper range, it proves surprisingly strong in the midrange as well. Face it, with this engine, anythingless than 6,000 rpm is a short shift, but there was always something there to keep the momentum flowing with each upshift of that tight, tidy and well-oiled six-speed, even in heavy traffic. The engine sings and the car zings. Although I didn’t put a stopwatch on the Si, my seat-of-the-pants feeling is that it is probably several tenths of a second slower to 100 kilometres an hour than the 200-hp, 2010 Volkswagen GTI I tested earlier, the turbocharged VW benefitting from an abundance of torque at much lower rpm. The Si’s penalty at the pumps was also fairly easy to take. I generated a fuel economy average of 9.7 litres per 100 kilometres despite "spirited" driving, although Betty demands the good stuff–91 octane or better.

Other than the engine, the other big thing separating the Si from the lesser models in the Civic lineup is its sport suspension, consisting of firm spring, damper and stabilizer bar tuning along with alloy wheels and grippy P215/45VR17 rubber. It’s a harmonious, well-engineered affair that lets Betty C. zip around on-ramps with poise and little body roll, yet it is still protective of the car’s occupants by not beating them up on less than perfect tarmac.

There’s only one major fly in the ointment to the Si being one of the best less-than-$30,000 sporty cars and that has to do with its coupe body style in relation to my 6-foot-2 height. I had to put the driver’s seat all the way back in its track. Also, because of the coupe’s profile, headroom is at a premium, exacerbated by the sunroof. This meant the seat had to go to its lowest position. So I am pretty much sitting in the middle of the car in a situation similar to being in a deep bathtub. As such, Betty C.’s sightlines are far from ideal. I cannot see the front corners of the car and the curvature and thickness of the windshield pillars leave huge blind spots when trying to make turns. At this juncture, I was starting to appreciate the nature of the hatchback body style (see GTI, above) more and more. Drivers of shorter stature may beg to differ.

As for the interior itself, it’s all very boy racer-ish, its design skewed to the car’s performance bona fides with bolstered synthetic suede seats with red stitching, red backlit gauges, leather-trimmed, tilt and telescopic steering wheel and aluminum shift knob. It’s comfortable but far from subtle. The dash layout is the same as in the rest of the Civic lineup, with the two-tier instrument panel continuing to polarize opinion. Ironically, as a result of several procedures to correct eye problems, I now find the placement of the digital speedometer perfect for my slightly farsighted distance vision.

Betty C. is no longer the fresh face on the block, but she remains scrappy –lightweight agility and a high-output fourbanger are desirable commodities these days, providing a solid measure of fun while not being over the top. And when it comes to fun, Betty is a giver.